June 16 - 19, 2006

Action organized by Sirens of Solidarity in collaboration with OpinionWare and Creative Response, aided by Electronic Disturbance TheatrePlease join us in an urgent action in solidarity with Iranian women's movement and in support of the tens of people who were detained on June 12, 2006 in Tehran. Some detainees are apparently scheduled to attend court on Saturday, June 17th. This action is an electronic sit-in on the website of the Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Help send a strong message to the President to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all detainees. Background: On June 12, 2006, Iranian law enforcement forces violently attacked and arrested peaceful demonstrators who had gathered in Haft-e Tir Square, Tehran, to demand equal rights for women. In an interview at the Evin Prison 2 days later, the spokesperson for the Islamic Republic (in)Justice Department stated that 70 people - 42 women and 28 men - were arrested and have been transferred to the Evin Prison. Eye-witness accounts, published on several Farsi and English blogs, report the number of detainees to be much higher, including some who were arrested several hours before the demonstration was to take place. A coalition of women's associations, other NGOs and individuals had organized the demonstration - on the anniversary of a peaceful action with similar goals held last year in front of Tehran University - to demand changes to the discriminatory legal code in Iran, specifically:

The right to divorce by women

Child custody rights for women

Abolition of polygamy

Equal rights in family law

Increasing the minimum legal marriage age for girls to 18 (currently 15)